Don’t be late to the party!

Hiya Folks,

I’ve got another nice roundup of interesting words and phrases I picked up this week. To be exact, one word and two phrases. And then a few more phrases tacked on at the end.

Cant

Usually we see “can’t”, so maybe your first thought is, did someone miss an apostrophe? But you know me and my grammar peeves. Skip an apostrophe? Nevuuuuurrrrrr (think of the cartoon horse in Mary Poppins, and you’ve got the right idea. Haven’t watched Mary Poppins? What planet did you say you were from? And you're positive they don’t have intergalactic satellite TV?)

Here we’re concerned with “cant”, the noun. If you want to meet “cant” its distant verb cousin, please look it up.

Getting back to cant, the noun. If it reminds you of the word “chant” you won’t be far wrong. Different cultures have different forms of chanting. For our purposes, think of church chanting, whether in Latin or another language. Think of how long the chants tend to be, how the range of notes is limited, and how a tune seems to repeat itself. Now we’re getting to “cant”.

The word “cant” did evolve from the musical “chant” for someone going on and on in a whiny voice, pleading their case, or carrying on saying the same things over and over again.

“Cant” in our world today has come to mean preachy talking, even hypocritical, and is usually found in one of three contexts: moral, religious, or political. For moral, you can think of a parent lecturing about telling the truth or being punctual or something equally annoying; for religious, picture a long-drawn-out sermon where the congregation is talked at, measured, and found wanting; for political, conjure up an image of a politician on a bandstand, promising this, that and the other thing so long as you vote for him or her. Cant. You’ll never think of it the same way again.

Now, what sort of sentences might we throw “cant” into? Here are a few, and you are welcome to try your own. Write me in the comments if you’re particularly keen to share a sentence of your own creation.

That minister is all talk. I listened to her impassioned cant for half an hour before realizing that she was going in circles.

I thought my parents knew how to lecture us, but that was nothing compared to the cant we received at the hands of the school principal.

A candle auction

What do you think this one is about? Sounds mysterious, ethereal, glowing lights and seances or a romantic candlelit dinner. Or maybe auctioning off candles that nobody wanted. Well, you would be wrong on all counts.

A candle auction, interestingly enough, is an auction that is held with a lit candle, and the bidders may place their bids until the candle splutters and dies. Apparently the exciting thing about it is that no one knows when the wick will take a sudden dive into the wax and expire prematurely.

We are not likely to see a candle auction in our day and time, but the next best thing we could try is to plan debates around a candle. You may argue your point for as long as the flame holds. Sounds good? Or would it go and and on and turn into a cant?

I’ll let you throw the phrase around, and form your own sentences. It’s more about a situation than about being creative with this phrase.

Late to the party

I asked my son a few night ago, “What do you think ‘late to the party’ means?”

His answer: Umm, that you’re late to a party?

I gave him a withering look.

Late to the party, my friends, is about a latecomer to an ongoing situation. The latecomer could be a country or a company. For instance, when more and more countries began to trade with China in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, the United States was late to the party, only joining in 1784. Or a company that wants to arrange for a merger with a few other companies, but is late on the uptake. While they were hesitating, a more intrepid company stepped in. In this case, the company that was late to the party missed the boat. I love English.

Of course, it could also be about people. James was rather late to the party as far as trading on the stock exchange went. His friends had been trading for three years before he got interested.

Threw me off vs. put me off

So those were the word and phrases I had collected this week to share with you, and then this morning I asked my son (the same one who thought late to the party meant arriving late at a party) what the difference was between being thrown off and being put off. He thought they were rather the same.

Ahem.

To throw someone off is to confuse them, as in “I was thrown off the scent” in a classic detective story.

If you are put off by something, on the other hand, you want to wrinkle your nose and walk away. Not because it stinks but because you’re taken aback, repulsed; it offends your finer sensibilities. For instance, I was put off by the fact that the comment was ill-timed.

And just to confuse you a bit: The way he tried to throw me off the main topic by distracting me really put me off the whole conversation.

Here’s a challenge for you. If you accept, post in the comments some time this week. Try and put "cant", "a candle auction", "late to the party", "throw someone off", and "put someone off" all into one spectacular sentence.

Know someone who would like to not be late to the party? Get them to join the weekly zaniness that is PerfectlyWriteKids.com.

And use all these words and phrases in your writing and speaking. Use, use, use them. What else are they here for?